Means for utilizing the waste space in hothouses



April 8, 1930. E. BAUMGARTNER 1,753,980.

I MEANS FOR UTILiZING THE WASTE SPACE IN HOT HOUSES April's, 1930.

"E. BAUMGARTNER 1,753,980

MEANS FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE SPACE IN HOT HOUSES I iled May 17, 1928 4Sheets-Sheet 2 April 8, 1930. E. BAUMGARTNER MEANS FOR UTILIZING THEWASTE SPACE IN HOT HOUSES Filed May 17, .192 4 Sheets-Shet 5 Ap 8, 1930.E. BAUMGARTNER MEANS FOR UTILIZING WASTE SPACE IN HOT HOUSES 4Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed May 17, 1928 Z72 cnfor Patented Apr. 8, 1930 EMILBAUMG'ABTNER NAIVUET, NEW YORK MEANS FOR UTILIZING TI-IE WASTE SPACE INHOTHOUSES Application filed May 17,

old, time-honored way which calls for an aisle between two adjoiningbenches.

I have found a solution for this problem which permits to usepractically the entire- 1 floor space ofa hot house forv useful work.

For the purpose of said improvement, the invention consists of thearrangement of certain parts and combination of the same, which will bemore fully described in the following specification and illustrated bythe accompanying drawings in which,

Figure 1 is a plan view of the ground floor of the hot house, showingthe spaced relation of the benches and some of the means allowing toarrange them in the manner illustrated" by said figure.

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view along the line 2-2 seentowards the door as indicated by the arrows attached to the line 2-2.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal side elevation of one of the benches,carrying the plants, as standing on the tracks during the variousoperations; the figure also illustrates the mechanical means for liftingand lowering the benches.

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of the bench along the line A-A ofFigure 3; the figure also illustrates the mechanical means for liftingand lowering the benches.

Figure 5 is a detail view of part of the mechanical means for liftingand lowering the benches illustrated in Figures?) and 4c.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view of means, i for instance in the form ofa rail, for bridging the gaps between two rails linearly arranged as apart of the means carrying the benches illustrated by Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic and fragmentary view of an end of a rail onan adjoin- 1928. Serial No..2 78,379.

ing block and of a platform, said rail connecting wit h the railslinearly arranged on the block and the movable platform illustrated byFigure 2.

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic and fragmentary view of a rail embedded inthe concrete pavement of the ground floor, showing a groove in aforesaidconcrete along the rail to receive the flange of the wheels of theplatform illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 9 is a top view of the wheel base of the benches showing themeans to impart tion of said motion to thewheels and showing therelamotion imparting means in connection with the other arrangement andmembers of the bench system.

Figure 10 shows a rail system outside the house. Fig between the Figure12 i ure 11 shows the spaced relation side tracks and the middle track.llustrates the mannerof moving the platform.

Like numerals denote like parts all through the various figures.

In the drawing 11 denotes the walls of a hot; house 11 be closed by adoor (not shown). Inside of. the hot house the ground floor is dividedby a aving an entrance 12, adapted to track system, consisting of theparallel rails 13. into two wider than sides of which side 14: isslightly side 15. Benches 16, preferably all of the same dimensions, arearranged in parallel stacks, parallel to'each other and to the rails'13; it will be noticed from an inspection of Figures 2 and 8 that therails 13 are arranged in the pavement 17 of the ground floor so that theupper side of the rail 13 is flush with the ground floor. A

groove 18 i s provided all along the rails 13 on the inside of the same.

A four wheel car 19, with a platform 20 thereon, is

provided on the said rails 18;

apair of rails 21 is provided on top of said platform 20st a suitabledistance from and parallel to each other so as to be disposedperpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the said platform 20 and tothe rails 13; the

platform 20, with the rails 21 therefore,

thereon, is,

somewhat elevated above the ground floor. It will be noticed that atboth sides 14 an d 15 of the hot house blocks 22 are arranged atsuitable distances from each other; on top of these blocks 22 rails 23are arranged in linear extension of the rails 21 on the platform 20.

Benches 24 are arranged each on a four wheel car 25 on two parallelrails 23, which have the same distance from each other as two oppositewheels of the car 25; the dis tance of the rails 21 on the platform isnecessarily the same as the distance of two such rails 23.

The benches 24 are arranged on the sides of the floor in stacks of four,or any other number, according to the width of the hot house. It will benoticed from Figure 2 that a free space 26 is arranged between each twoblocks 22 for the reasons specified further below. This space 26 is tocontain all the pipings needed in the operation of the hot house andthey are preferably arranged longitudinally through the hot house,parallel to the rails 13. These pipes are used, among other purposes,for heating the hot house; the upper pipe 27 conducts the heat either inthe form of steam, or hot water and the lower pipes 23 serve as returnpipes, for instance to conduct the condensed water of the steam, etc.Also water pipes may be arranged n this space 26. The space 26,furthermore, is used as an aisle for watering, weeding or for any otherstep in the cultivation of the plants in the various stages of theirdevelopment.

In Figure 2, it is shown that four benches 24, are arranged in eachstack back to back; the bases along the middle of the hot house abut theplatform 20. The benches 24 cannot always stay together back to back asshown in Figure 2; occasionally they must be moved so that one can stepbetween individual benches to get at the plants. It is quite naturalthat the length of the benches and the plants there give the benches atotal weight which is too great for manual operation and means aretherefore provided to impart motion to the wheels of the base 25 onwhich said benches are arranged.

lVheels 29 are arranged at the ends of two parallel axles 30, which areoperatively engaged by two heavy plates 31, arranged above said axles30. Near the ends of each of said plates 31 a heavy iron block 32 isrigidly arranged upon said plates 31 and a rod 33 is rotarily arrangedin said metal blocks 32. On either side of the benches one of the metalblocks 32 has superimposed thereon a U- shaped frame 34, in which asmall spur gear 35 is operatively arranged on a shaft 36, which extendsoutside and terminates in a handle 37 (see Figure 3). This spur gear 35is of relatively small diameter and meshes with a spur gear 38 ofslightly smaller di ameter than the flange 39 of the wheel 29. Each spurgear 38 is rigidly secured upon one of the axles 30 and is closelyadjoining the flange 39 of the adjoining wheel 29. On

turning the handle 37 in either direction the whole bench movesaccordingly back or forth, as the case may be.

From Figure 9 it is obvious that the motion imparting means on eachbench are disposed closely to the wheels at diagonally opposite points.The rod 33 terminates in a handle 40 and is provided with two screwthreads 41 and 42 running from the middle of the distance between theblocks 32 in opposite directions. Sleeves 43 and 44, screw threadedinside, operatively engage aforesaid screw threads 41 and 42,respectively; they are furthermore at their upper ends hingedlyconnected with the heavy iron bars 45 and 46, respectively, which inturn are hingedly connected with each other at 47. A T-shaped arm 48 ishingedly connected at the upper end of the bar 45 and is rigidly securedby any suitable means, such as rivets, or the like, to the bottom 49 ofthe box 50.

A fork shaped piece 51 is hingedly connected at the upper end of theiron bar 46 and terminates in a perpendicularly disposed rounded maleprojection 52, engaging a female part of a pillow 53, depending from thebottom 49 of the box 50. A chain is secured with its ends to the bottom49 and to the upper end of the iron bar 45.

In the middle of the rod 33 a miter gear 54 is secured which meshes witha miter gear 55 on the rod 56; another miter gear 55 is provided at theother end of rod 56 and meshes with miter gear 54 secured to a like rod33 similarly arranged on the other side of the wheel base.

From the construction of this arrangement it will be obvious that uponturning the handle 40 in one or the other direction the sleeves 43 and44, will, depending on the threads 41 and 42, either approach orseparate from each other, and by the inter-connection of the va riousparts, particularly the heavy bars 45 and 46, the box 50 will eitherlower or rise according to the direction in which the handle 40 isturned. Owing to the arrangement of a rod 33 at both sides of the wheelbase and the co-operation of these two rods 33 with the rod 56 by meansof the miter gears 54 and 55 respectively, the box 50 can be raised orlowered evenly by turning only the handle 40. In order to steady thewhole frame work. or structure, just described, braces 57 and 58 areprovided to give it the proper stabilization for the purposes intended.

It has already been mentioned that the benches eventually have to beseparated, from their back to back position. It may for instance benecessary for the operation of the hot house that the benches in thelinear align ment A B C D I must be moved towards the middle of the hothouse in order to allow an inspection at the space between the benches Aand A. To accomplish this particular purpose I use the motion impart-Eli;

ing means at diagonally opposite points of the axles 30 as to the box Aand all the boxes on the same side of the hot house. The location of themotion imparting means is indicated at opposite ends by the littlesquares 59 and 60. If I want to move the benches A B 1 towards themiddle of the hot house, I turn the handle 37 located at the square 59in such direction that the bench A will move to the platform 20, whichwas brought in front of the stack of the benches A As soon as this isaccomplished I can walk between the benches A and A and can accomplishany work which may be necessary. If I then want to move bench B 1 turnthe handle 37 of bench B located at square 59 so as to bring that benchB on another platform 20 brought up in front of the stack of benches Band so on all through down to bench P. It is self-evident that owing tothe movement of the benches A towards the middle of the hot house I canmove the bench A in a similar manner towards the bench A and so on untileach individual bench on the same side of the house has been attendedto. lVith the benches on the left side of the hot house I proceed inexactly the same manner except that on this side I now operate themotion imparting means, indicated by squares 60. c

In connection with the outside track system, which will be describedfurther below, it is still possible when all the benches have beentended to, to ultimately arrange benches on the rails 13 wherebypractically the whole space of the hot house can be taken advantage offor useful purposes. To do this it will be of advantage to move thebenches 24 in the stack on the side 14 of the hot house over to theouter end of the rails 23 so that the first bench almost touches thewall 11 of the hot house.

Another feature of my invention is the temporary bridging of the gapbetween two adjoining blocks 22 by means of the rails 23. During thework of for instance the two benches A and A after having turned the boxA to the middle of the hot house, it is obvious from an inspection ofFigure 2 that the space 26 between the benches A and A? must be used asan aisle. The rails 23 bridging over the gap between the blocks 22,adjoining the benches A and A must then be removed or turned aside to dothe work conveniently. This can be done by the arrangement of the railsas illustrated by Figure 6. From said figure it will be noticed that therails 23 terminate shortly in front of the edges of the blocks 22 andthat the ends of the rails 23 are secured to the blocks 22; they areadvantageously cut at both ends in oblique directions parallel to eachother so that the rail can be turned around 90 to be out of the way.

The same arrangement can be used in bridging over the gap between theopposite blocks 22 in the middle of the hot house. The five benches 24:can then be arranged that either one bench or two halves of adjoiningbenches completely fill the space of the middle aisle so as to havetogether nine benches arranged back to back over the full width of thehot house. If this system of arranging the benches is maintained allover the house down to the bench stack 1, practically the whole space ofthe ground floor of the hot house is utilized except for an isle at bothfront sides and at least one aisle along one longitudinal side of thehouse.

I may further say that the rails 21 of the platform and on the adjoiningblocks 22 are cut in an oblique directionand that the rails 23 of theplatform 22 correspondingly flare outwardly (Figure 7 the ends of therails 28 therefore closely abut the rails 21 on the platform 20 andreceive these outwardly flaring ends of said rails in case a heavy bench24: is moved on the platform 20 and tends to tilt the same. A projection62 of block 22 adjoining the platform also prevents the platform fromtilting.

It is obvious from the foregoing that my new method of arranging thebenches, which carry the plants, allowsa greatvariation in grouping saidbenches together. This variation is of course first of all governed bythe dimensions of the hot house and then by the personal element ofpreferring to do a certain work in a certain way instead of another;this is often instrumental in determining the operation of the hothouse, but all these variations can be performed without changing thefundamental principle of my method.

The cultivation of the plants also makes it imperative at certainseasons of the year to bring the plants out into the open air.v Thiswill be accomplished in the manner described below. Moreover, in the oldfashioned style of operating hot houses the soil in the benches 2a isnecessarily putinto boxes after the same have been permanently installedwithin the hot house The supply of the boxes with soil in this oldfashioned manner by carting it in wheel-barrows is slow and unnecessaryhard work. I can overcome this by filling the soil into the boxes 50, orrenewing it outside of the hot house.

It will be noticed from Figures 10 and 11 that the rails 13 areextending out into the yard and that parallel rails 23 are arrangedsidewardly and perpendicularly disposed to the rails 13 at the samedistance from each other and according to the same principle except-thatthey are laid directly on the ground fastened to wooden ties in themanner of a railroad track. It will be further noticed from Figures 10and 11 that the rails 13 are disposed below the surface of the soil insuch depth that the rails 21 on the platform 20 will connect with theserails 23 outside in the yard. It will be further noticed hat ahorizontally disposed disk is arranged on a rotarily arranged shaft (notshown) between the inside ends of the rails 13 and at the outside endsanother such disk is mounted on a vertically disposed rotary shaft 66.

Over the peripheral face of these disks 63 an endless belt 64 isarranged which is pressed inwardly by vertically disposed rollers 65 sothat the parallel lengths of the belt 64 are running close to eachother. On the belt 64: double hooks 77 are secured projectingperpendicularly upwardly. The disk 63 outside the hot house,horizontally arranged on the vertically disposed rotary shaft 66, isnear its top provided with a spur gear 67 of.relatively large diameter,this worm wheel 67 being in mesh with a worm 68 secured to the rotaryshaft 69 of the electric motor 70.

An arm 71, of elastic material, is secured at the middle of the frontside to the platform 20 and is provided at its free end with a hook 72engaging the front side of the double hook 77. Inasmuch as the belt 64moves below the wheel axles of the platform 20 and is only slightlyabove the concrete pavement 17, it is obvious that the hook 72 whenengaging the hook 77, on the belt moving in the direction of the arrow73, pulls the platform 20, with the bench 24 arranged thereon, out ofthe house. It will be further noticed from the Figure 10, in connectionwith the diagrammatic Figure 12, that the horizontally disposed hook 72is pushed off the double hook 77 by means of a curve 78 where the belt64: engages the same tangentially, the hook 7 9 being then pushed offhook 77 and lifted by the elastic arm 71. The bench 25 stops then eitherat the place 7%, where the old exhausted soil of the box 50 can bedumped by tilting the same around the end of the heavy iron bar 45 (seeFigure 4), whereafter fresh soil is filled into the box from the placeopposite the place'l'l; if the plants are to be aired, the platform isstopped in front of any one of the rail tracks 23 in the yard for movingthe benches thereon in the same manner as in the house inside.

My new method of operating a hot house also allows an eflicient heatingof the same. In Figure 4 it is shown that curtains 76 of densely wovenmaterial, impregnated with some chemical to withstand the action of thehumidity of the air of the hot house and to be less permeable to theair, depend from the edges of the bottom 49 of the box 50 down to thepavement 17 of the hothouse. Cuffs 79 of similar material are providedat the front and rear edges of the bottom ll) (see Figure 3, the cuffbeing shown on one side only) which bridge over the gap between twolinearly arranged boxes 50 and also the gap between the stacks whereposts 80 are located to support the roof of the hot house.

It is evident that heat emanating from the hot pipes 27 cannot freelytravel into the space of the hot house, but is forced to stay below thebottom 41-9 of the boxes 50 so as to be conveyed to the soil in additionto the heat absorbed by the soil from the sunlight.

I wish to state that the description given above illustrates only thegeneral principle of my new method of operating a hot house inconnection with the means described, or their equivalent; that I do notwant to be restricted only to the means described here, because it isobvious that various elements of my invention can be changed withoutsacrificing the advantages of or departing from the spirit of theinvention.

It is obvious that the way of moving the platform with the bench thereonoutside of, or inside into the house can be operated in variousmechanical ways, but this does not distract from the fact that my newsystem allows to freely move the plants with a minimum of. oersonallabor and of time, and to practically use the whole floor space of thehot house, while it also provides the possibility of access to eachindividual bench and allows to regulate also the height of the bench forthe greater comfort of the worker and in view of the requirements of theplants.

lVhat I claim is:

1. In a hot house the combination of a flooring, a rail track, embeddedin said flooring, extending longitudinally in approximately the middleof the hot house, a system of side tracks, arranged parallel to eachother, disposed perpendicularly and spacedly elevated relative toaforesaid longitudinal rail track, a platform, movably arranged onaforesaid longitudinal rail track, provided with rails connecting theelevated tracks on the sides of the longitudinal rail track, and

a plurality of wheel actuated movable benches spacedly arranged back toback on said elevated tracks.

2. In a hot house the combination of a flooring, a rail track, embeddedin said flooring, extending longitudinally in approximately the middleof the hot house, a system of side tracks, arranged parallel to eachother, disposed perpendicularly and spacedly elevated relative toaforesaid longitudinal rail track, provided with rails connecting theelevated tracks on the sides of the longitudinal track, a plurality ofwheel actuated movable benches spacedly arranged back to back on saidelevated tracks so as to cover substantially the whole flooring, and anouter similar system of side tracks connecting with the aforesaidlongitudinal rail track.

3. In a hot house the combination of a flooring, a rail track, embeddedin said flooring, extending longitudinally in approxiinately the middleof the hot house, a plurality of blocks, arranged at suitable distancesfrom each other in linear arrangement both parallel to each other andperpendicular to aforesaid longitudinal tracks, a rail secured to thetop of each alternate pair of said blocks disposed in alignmentperpendicular to the said longitudinal rail track, means connecting therails on the adjoining blocks so as to form one elevated side rail, aplatform, movably arranged on aforesaid longitudinal rail track,provided with a pair of parallel rails registering with twocorresponding rails of aforesaid elevated side rails, and a plurality ofwheel actuated movable benches, adapted to engage the rails on saidplatforms as well as two side rails registering with them, arranged backto back so as to cover substantially the whole flooring.

4:. In a hot house the combination of a flooring, a rail track embeddedin said flooring, extending longitudinally in approximately the middleof the hot house, a system of elevated side tracks parallel to eachother and disposed perpendicularly to aforesaid longitudinal rail track,a platform, movably arranged on aforesaid longitudinal ra1l I track,provided with rails so as to connect with the elevated tracks on thesides of the longitudinal rail tracks, and a plurality of wheel actuatedand vertically adjustable movable benches arranged back to back on saidelevated tracks so as to cover substantially the whole flooring.

5. In a hot house the combination of a flooring, a rail track, embeddedin said flooring, extending longitudinally in approxlmately the middleof the hot house, a system of elevated side tracks parallel to eachother and disposed perpendicularly to aforesaid longitudinal rail track,heat conductlng means, a platform, movably arranged on aforesaidlongitudinal rail track, provlded with rails so as to connect with theelevated side track on the sides of the longitudinal rail track, and aplurality of wheel actuated movable benches, arranged back to back onsaid elevated tracks so as to cover substantially the whole flooring,and having cuffs at the front sides and a curtain at the length sides ofeach bench.

6. In a hot house as described by claim 1, the combination comprising alongitudinally platform so as to connect with the elevated side tracks.

9. In a hot house as described by claim 1, the combination comprising aplurality of wheel actuated movable benches adapted to be arranged backto back and side to side to each other so as to cover substantially thewhole flooring.

10. In a hot house as described by claim 4, a plurality of wheelactuated and vertically adjustable movable benches adapted to bearranged back to back and side to side so as to cover substantially thewhole flooring.

1.1. In a hot house as described by claim 5, a plurality of laterallymovable benches adapted to be arranged back to back and side to side toeach other and each provided with ends at its front sides and curtainsat its length sides.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

EMIL BAUMGARTNER.

extending rail track and elevated side tracks serving as a support forthe benches, the distance between the tracks being arranged with respectto the benches so as to leave no open space between the same.

7 In a hot house as described by claim 3, the combination comprisingremovable means connecting the rails arranged on alternate pairs ofblocks in linear extension to the rails on saidblocks.

8. In a hot house as described by claim 1, the combination comprising aplatform movably arranged on the longitudinal rail track, rails spacedlyrelated to each other on said

